CEASE, an Atlantic City casino workers group, is urging New Jersey lawmakers to eliminate the casino exemption to the state’s indoor smoking ban before the legislature breaks for the summer. The efforts are also picking up steam in St. Louis County, the first jurisdiction in Missouri to consider the issue.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (l.) withdrew from a lawsuit against the state Highway Patrol filed by two companies accused of operating illegal gambling machines. Now Bailey’s being urged to return campaign contributions from the firms.

Macau casinos posted brisk gaming revenues for April, up 450 percent year on year and more than 15 percent from the previous month. Tourism was healthy for the Labor Day holiday, which started April 28.

Officials in Westlock County have reached out to the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission asking it to approve the relocation of Capital City’s Camrose Resort Casino (l.) to Edmonton.

The U.K.’s long awaited gambling white paper, spearheaded by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, was finally released late last month, and so far the reforms have garnered a range of reactions from operators, responsible gambling advocates and everyone in between.

The addition of more than 1,000 sports betting kiosks at Ohio restaurants, bars, bowling alleys and such has not exactly brought more revenue to the Ohio Lottery. The Lottery, which oversees the kiosks, is not too worried. In time, the profits will come.

Dan Hartman (l.) retired as head of the Colorado Department of Revenue with a positive revenue stream. The state approved a grant for a program to assist college athletes bullied by gamblers who blame them for losing bets.

Two Washington tribes want to be the first to build a casino in the Tri-Cities area. Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation have applied to put land in Pasco into trust. Meanwhile, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation want to place their second casino in the area.

Japan’s first casino, to be built on Yumeshima Island in Osaka Bay, is now set to open in 2030, a year later than recently planned. The resort is a project of MGM Resorts International and its Japanese partner, Orix Corp.

Mohegan Gaming’s long-awaited South Korean resort, Inspire, is set to open in late 2023, according to the U.S.-based tribal gaming enterprise. Inspire will include a foreigners-only casino.

PH Resorts Group, a unit of Philippines business conglomerate Udenna Group, is hoping investors will enable it to resume construction on a stalled integrated resort in Cebu.

RMG (Racecourse Media Group) has paid out £117.6 million to its member racecourses for 2022. The profits were generated from media and data rights paid by betting shops, online bookmakers, pay TV, mainstream TV, international wagering and non-betting distribution.

The Dutch online gaming market is projected to grow 15 percent in 2023. That’s the prediction by Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the Dutch gaming authority. KSA stated, “This fourth monitoring report shows a growth in the market for online games of chance, as we previously predicted.”

Germany’s GGL gaming regulator has classified some forms of daily fantasy sports (DFS) as illegal gambling. A member of the GGL board said that the decision was made to protect vulnerable players from addiction and illegal gambling.

Grupo Televisa, which is the largest media conglomerate in Mexico, has obtained permission from its shareholders to spin off part of its business to create a “gambling and soccer” operation. It will be listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMW).

In-play bets cannot be offered in a purely online format in Australia. Entain found that out the hard way when it was fined by the Australian Communications and Media Authority for doing so last October.

Regulators in New South Wales recently ordered two Sydney pubs to disconnect their gaming areas—the two venues had offered dual access in efforts to skirt machine count limits.

Two weeks after being brought to its knees by a ransomware hack attack, Gateway Casino in London, Ontario reopened on May 1. Now Gateway is reopening the rest of its Ontario casinos one by one. It claims no personal information was compromised by the attacks.

For the second consecutive year, BetMGM was named Casino Operator of the Year at the EGR North America Awards honoring online gaming operators.

NFL players are prohibited from betting while at work or during team travel. Thanks to technology, players have been nailed doing just that. But why is the union notifying agents and not players?

Vermont is the last state in New England without a sports betting law. The state has also been super attentive to being aggressive in responsible measures.

The patience of St. Louis Cardinals president Bill DeWitt (l.) is getting thin as the Senate has been unable to get sports betting legislation passed, and DeWitt has said a referendum could be enacted next year.

Sports betting legislation in Minnesota is still in danger of not passing, but an amendment that would give some of the profits to horse racing tracks might help get it through.

Last year, a sports betting bill fell a vote short in the House. This year, the hangup was in the Senate. But supporters say the state is not pressed to pass legislation in 2023.

Bally has had some challenges with its sports betting division but believes two recent partnerships should help them successfully relaunch in the U.S.

March handle in Virginia surpassed $511 million, the fifth time in six months it crossed $500 million. Credit the NCAA basketball tournament for the results in March.

The Oakland A’s have found their new ballpark site (l.), but the question remains as to how it’ll get funded. The team previously solicited Strip operators for potential tax breaks, but that won’t work for the site they chose. What will work, however, are the large-scale transportation upgrades coming to the area.

A community board appointed by Brooklyn borough and council members passed a resolution that overwhelmingly rejects the proposal for a Coney Island casino.

The competition for a casino continues in Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia. After Richmond voters rejected casino gambling in 2021, Petersburg lawmakers maneuvered to block a do-over, and aim to do it again.

In 2011, Genting Malaysia acquired a bayfront parcel in Miami with plans to develop a casino there. Now the company will sell that prime real estate to a Florida investor and use the funds on a New York casino bid.

Caesars Entertainment will invest $100 million to renovate the Jubilee Tower from Horseshoe Las Vegas and connect it to Paris Las Vegas (l.) by a new pedestrian bridge, the company announced.

Caesars Virginia will open a 40,000-square-foot temporary facility in Danville on May 15, becoming the state’s third casino. The permanent $400 million facility (l.), opening in late 2024, is being built on adjacent property.

The Henderson City Council unanimously approved Station Casino’s purchase of 3.8 acres for the Station Inspirada casino resort, opening in March 2025.

Urban One has completed the sale of its minority stake in MGM National Harbor (l.), receiving $136.8 million after MGM bought back all of the media company’s investment.

The Illinois Gaming Board approved Penn Entertainment’s request to move Hollywood Casino Joliet to Rock Run Crossings and Hollywood Casino Aurora to an Interstate 88 site.

The Apache Tribe of Oklahoma could be ordered to pay large fines due to multiple violations cited by the National Indian Gaming Commission at two tribal casinos dating back to 2013.

Construction will start next month on the WarHorse Casino in Omaha, Nebraska, to be completed in late 2024. WarHorse Lincoln’s temporary casino opened in September 2022. Ho-Chunk Inc. and Nebraska Horsemen are partners in the projects.

Eight months ago Boyd Gaming opened the $500 million Sky River Casino (l.) for the Wilton Rancheria in Elk Grove, California. The property has done so well that the tribe is considering an expansion that could include a hotel, convention center and live entertainment venue.

Gaming Laboratories International recently announced four promotions throughout its upper-level management staff, three of which are from the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.

EveryMatrix recently announced that it has appointed industry veteran Gonzalo De Osma Bucero (l.) to the role of chief financial officer.

MGM Resorts International’s wholly owned iGaming subsidiary LeoVegas will acquire Push Gaming, a developer of high-quality online slot games.

Kambi Group has completely paid off the €7.2 million bond to previous owner Kindred Group issued as part of its spinoff from Kindred, giving Kambi full control of its business.